


The Baby-Sitters Startup

by AngelaCastir



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Altruism, Flash Fic, Future, Future Fic, Gen, Original Flavor, POV First Person, Polyamory, San Francisco Bay Area, Short, Startup Culture, effective altruism, rationalist au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25158364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelaCastir/pseuds/AngelaCastir
Summary: Short flash AU of the Baby-Sitters club characters Claudia and Kristy if they grew up to become Bay Area rationalists.I've got another little chapter I can add about Mary-Anne, but it needs a bit of polish.Just something I wrote for a bit of fun a while ago, and with the new netflix series I thought I should share it.
Relationships: Claudia Kishi/Other(s), Kristy Thomas/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 12





	The Baby-Sitters Startup

**Kristy’s Effective Idea**

“I’ve finally figured it out!” I grinned at Claudia through a forkful of hummus and quinoa.

“What?” She raised her eyebrow at me; she’d drawn little stars in eyeliner tracing a line from the edge of her eye to her temple.

“You know, my personal crisis I was telling you about last time we had brunch?”

“That’s still going on? I thought you were back at UCLA this semester.”

“Yeah, I am, but - my girlfriend…” I frowned. I wondered if she was going to think I was crazy. “Have you heard of the effective altruism movement?”

“Yeah, my boyfriend’s wife runs the South Bay Effective Altruism meetup group.”

Right. Claudia had a whole bunch of odd friends she’d met in the artsier parts of San Francisco. Of course she’d have heard of it.

“So yeah, I was talking to Taylor about my personal crisis, and she recommended me this website, 80,000 hours?” I raised my voice about two octaves, hoping I wouldn’t have to explain it.

“Oh yeah, I know the one. I never finished it. It’s a career test, right?”

“Not exactly. You fill it out, really put your soul into it, and it makes you - it makes you think about things you didn’t realise you wanted to know. And I’m pretty sure I want to make the world a better place. But I’m not like Mary Anne, I don’t know anything about computer programming so I can’t save the world from an unfriendly AI, I couldn’t prototype some amazing piece of technology like Stacey, and I’m not a people-person like you so I don’t have the connections you do. Hell, I’m not even as organised as Mary Anne! I’m an ideas person, you know?”

Claudia grinned. “Yes, I know.”

“Anyway, I did the quiz and get this: it said I should be a startup founder.”

Claudia laughed, taking a sip of her smoothie. “Of course it said that.”

“But I’ve already got an idea! Remember that babysitting club we had when we were kids?”

She smiled. “Yeah, that was fun.”

“People don’t talk to their neighbours anymore, so they don’t know kids in the neighborhood. And people don’t plan ahead like they used to. And no parent in their right mind is going to let a 13 year old kid look after their kids.”

“Yeah, there’s no way we’d leave Sagan with someone who wasn’t even old enough to drive.”

“Exactly! So I was thinking, we can make an Uber for babysitters. Have nannies or teachers who want to make extra money in their off hours. Whatever. Could we include the blockchain? That’d get us funding for sure.”

Claudia laughed. “You’d have to ask Stacey. She’d know about all of that.”

“Then we make the business big, get bought out by Care.com or something, and donate all the money to make malaria nets or whatever. I’ll have thought up something else by then and we can rinse and repeat. Really make a difference, you know?”

“I’m getting the feeling you have a plan for me?”

“Well, I need a vice president. I also need a graphic designer, and someone who knows about psychology and marketing. Someone who can make a pitch to investors.”

“So, me, in other words?”

“Exactly. Can I count on you?”

Claudia stared at the bottom of her empty smoothie cup, and took a long, loud sip through her metal straw.

“Sure. It’ll be fun.”


End file.
